Dump-car.



c. H. CLARK.

DUMP CAR. APPLICATlON FILED. N40]. 26. 1 915- Patented Apr. 17,1917.

2 SH 'ETS-SHEET I.

WlTNESSES 0 H. CLARK.

I DUMP CAR.

' APPUCATION FILED NOV. 26 |9|5- 1,223,148. Patented Apr. 17, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- ."P Ian INVENTOR WITNESSES CHARLES H. CLARK, 0F GRAFTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO CLARK CAR COM- PANY, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

I DUMP-CAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 17, 1917.

Original application filed November 14, 1912, Serial No. 731,304. Divided and this application filed November To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES H. CnAnK, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Grafton, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Dump- Cars, of which the following is a specification.

This is a division of my application filed November 14, 1912, Serial No. 731,301, Patent No. 1,182,642 dated May 9, 1916, and has particular reference to novel and efficient means for supporting and operating dump car doors. The invention is predicated on a hopper car having a relatively low and relatively large discharge opening, the novel arrangement of doors and their mode of operation causing them to open and close without interfering With the track or with fixed parts of the car. In the preferred adaptation, the doors cooperate with a single unobstructed opening of maximum area, the width of the opening corresponding to the width of the car body and hence extending at each side beyond the track rails. Maximum clearance is thus provided when the doors are open, insuring rapid and complete discharge of the load. The invention embodies a simple and efiicient arrangement of door operating means which preferably extends to an end of the car where it is readily accessible, the operating means being adj ustablefor taking up lost motion, whereby accurate and complete operation of the doors may be had at all times.

In the accompanying drawings, Figurel is a side elevation of a portion of a dump car constructed in accordance with the invention, the doors being shown closed in full lines and open in dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan taken on line 22 of Fig. 1, the doors being in closed position.

Referring to the drawings, the opposite longitudinal side walls 2 of the hopper are preferably disposed vertically, without inward offsets or slopes where they merge into the bottom opening, and 3 are the oppositely sloping end sheets. The car body is preferably constructed without center sills, the longitudinal strains being carried by the side sills 4, leaving the interior of the hopper unobstructed. The hopper as here constructed is of maximum width or transverse Serial No. 63,373.

clearance, the vertical side walls offering'no obstruction to the discharging lading.

For meeting the clearance conditions herein desired doors 5 are arranged to open toward the ends of the car, and I have adapted to this use balanced bodily movable doors of the general type described in Letters Patent No. 939,588, granted to me November 9, 1909. Thedoors are adapted to close together and are constructed with upwardly extending end portions 6 which form downward continuations of side walls 2 when the doors are closed. Each door is adapted to rotate about an axis disposed transversely of the car, such axis being defined by spindles 7 of rollers S mounted on the opposite 'door ends, the outer ends of the spindles being journalcd in the angular door-end braces 9. Rollers 8 are sustained by and adapted to travel on tracks 10 secured to and extending longitudinally of the side sills .4, and the roller engaging face of each track is preferably curved as shown so that the roller lowers slightly as the door begins to open, and raised slightly as it approaches full open position, Fig. 1.

The doors are adapted to move beneath and behind theend slope sheets 3. In the adaptation here shown their movement is directed and controlled by the bell-crank levers 11 and 12. fulcruined to the car sides at 11 and 12', respectively. Lovers 11 have their downwardly extending arms pivoted at 13 to the upper rear portion of one of the doors, while levers 12 are similarly connected at 13 to the other door. The upper arms of levers 11 and 12 at each side of the car are connected by the longitudinally adjustable bar or link 11, said crank arms being so disposed that the doors must open in unison and close in unison.

At one end of the car is the transverse operating shaft 15, journals therefor being provided in the upright brackets 16. Ad jacent each side of the car the shaft is provided with cranks 17 which are connected by bars or links 18 with the upper ends of levels 11 coincidentally with links or bars 1 1. The outer extremities of links 18 are deflected vertically at 18" to extend across operating shaft 15 which place the cranks on or beneath dead centers for locking the doors in closed position. Turnbuckle i l in bars 14 are utilized for adjusting the doors relatively-to each other, and turnbuckles '18" in bars 18 afford adjustment for the connections with the operating shaft. The several turnbuckles are also of service in taking up lost motion due to wear,-etc.

Secured to shaft 15 is arm 19 carrying at its extremity the weighted handhold 20 for throwing shaft 15, the movement of the arm for closing the doors being limited by stop 21 at one side of oneof the brackets 16, while a similar stop 21 at the opposite side of the bracket limits the movement when the doors are opening.

The damping opening of the hopper is materially wider than the space between the track rails so that the lading is discharged outside as well as between the rails, and the longitudinal dimension of the opening is as great or greater than its transverse dimension. The position of the dumping opening relatively to the track is lower than has been obtained heretofore with a relatively large opening, this being due to the employment of door mechanism of such form for an opening of the character described that the doors when open fully clear the track and trucks.

I claim:

1. The combination of a dump car having a bottom discharge opening, a pair of doors for the opening adapted to close together with the doors movable bodily in opposite directions longitudinally of the car and with each door rotatable about a horizontal axis disposed transversely of the car, a single pair of supporting rollers for each door journaled, respectively, to the door ends and defining the axis of rotation of the door, tracks for the rollers secured to and extending longitudinally of the car, and door actuating means.

2. The combination of a dump car having a bottom discharge opening, a pair of doors for the opening adapted to close together with the doors movable bodily in opposite directions longitudinally of the car and with each door rotatable about a horizontal axis disposed transversely of the car, rollers mounted on the ends of each door and defining the axis of rotation thereof, tracks for the rollers secured to and extending longitudinally of the car, two sets of crank arms mounted on the car and adapted to rotate about axes disposed transversely of the carone set of arms for each door with the arms pivotally connected thereto, and means for actuating the crank arms.

3. The combination of a dump car having a bottom discharge opening, the car having opposite side walls and downwardly convergingend walls with all of said walls terminating at the discharge opening, a pair of doors adapted to close together with the doors movable longitudinally of the car and beneath said sloping end walls, the doors provided with upwardly extending end portions which form downward continuations of the opposite side walls when the doors are closed, eachdoor rotatable about a horizontal to the shaft and adapted to be thrown to one side of the latter when rotating the shaft for opening the door and thrown to the opposite side of the shaft when rotating the same for closing the door.

5. The combination of a dumpcar provided with 'a bottom discharge opening, a pair of doors therefor adapted to open toward opposite ends of the car, a pair of cranks for each door operatively connected thereto with the cranks mounted on the car to rotate about axes disposed transversely of the car, links connecting the corresponding cranks of the respective pairs for operatin the doors in unison, an operating sha t mounted on and disposed transversely of the car and provided with cranks, and connections between the respective cranks and said crank-arm-connecting links.

6. The combination of a dump car provided with a bottom discharge opening, a door, a shaft mounted on the car and disposed transversely thereof and provided with cranks, a weighted arm secured to the shaft, stops at opposite sides of the shaft for limiting the throw of the arm, and door operating links connected to the door and extending across the plane of said shaft with the extremities of the bars deflected vertically and secured to the shaft cranks.

7. The combination of a dump car provided with a bottom discharge opening, a pair of opposed doors movable bodily longitudinally of the car, tracks and track engaging rollers with the rollers mounted on the doors and comprising supports about which the doors turn when opening and when closa bottom opening, doors for controlling the fixed stops at opposite sides of the shaft for 10 opening, a crank shaft extending translimiting the throw of said arm.

versely of the car, links connecting the In testimony whereof I aflix my signature cranks of said shafts with the doors, the conin presence of two witnesses.

nections between the links and cranks being located beyond the'dead center line of the CHAS CLARK operating shaft when the doors are closed Wltnesses: and thereby locln'ng the latter, a weighted S. A; MCFARLAND,

operating arm secured to said shaft, and V HOWARD L. BACH. 

